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What We Could Learn From Jersey City

The city adopted an ambitious creative zoning plan, and has created more density and housing with tremendous success. Donald Shoup of UCLA says that L.A. could easily do the same here.

By Kelsi Maree Borland | kelsimareeborland | Updated on July 27, 2017

Los Angeles may have an easy solution to its housing crisis: graduated density zoning or creative zoning, which allows land owners to come together and assemble small lots into larger lots for development. Donald Shoup, professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, proposed the idea in his most recent UCLA economic letter. As an example of the success of creative zoning, Shoup points to Jersey City. The city adopted the policy after seeing another piece of research he published on the same topic nearly eight years ago, and he is hoping the same happens in Los Angeles.

“Some of my research did get attention in Jersey City. It was a city planner that read my article eight years ago, and he slipped it into the ideas to consider in Jersey City. The city ultimately adopted it, and I think it shows really well how graduated density could work,” Shoup tells GlobeSt.com. “The city’s program was much more ambitious than I even anticipated, and it immediately lead to the assembly of 13 lots, which were mainly parking lots. The tallest building in Jersey City is already on one of them, and they are building 13 more.”

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